A twentieth-century Italian Villa in the post-earthquake reconstruction

This work belongs to the post-earthquake reconstruction process of the city of L'Aquila, Italy, which has led to the rediscovery of architectural, cultural, historical, technical-constructive values of the built heritage. An example is certainly the residential complex called "Villa Morante", built in the 1917. The surviving villa of the complex was built according to the typical scheme of the early twentieth century. Its layout, the structural scheme and the facade motifs are a typological-architectural example of the building production that emerged in Italy in the early twentieth century. The rooms have ceilings which are decorated with tempera or stucco according to “Liberty” motifs and geometries. These decorations were probably realized by the L’Aquila School of Arts and Crafts, directed by Teofilo Patini. With the 2009 earthquake, the complex suffered a lot of damage, both structural and decorative. Therefore, this paper aims to illustrate the "discovery of the values" work by surveying the building and the related rehabilitation project.